Lupins & Lamb Chops

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Where Life Turns Into One Big Bob Ross Painting

Quite a challenge finding internet access out in the boondocks, so I'm doing several days postings while I can get logged in.

We've long wondered if Bob Ross (God rest his soul) created the landscapes in his painting straight from his idealized imagination ... or if they were inspired by somewhere real.

Little did we know he'd apparently spent a lot of time in New Zealand. Snow-capped mountains that descend into lakes so blue and pristine they act as a mirror to the heavens. There are simply not words to do it justice. But I'm certain Bob was a frequent traveller to New Zealand. (Although there still only appears to be one sun in the sky here, and Bob frequently seemed to paint with several sources of light.)

We took out of Christchurch and hit the countryside big time. Proper city streets quickly gave way to ... well ... sheep. And more sheep. Then there were the sheep. In obscenely green fields that lined the two-lane highway the entire route.

It's spring, so little bambino sheep are scampering everywhere looking cute and vaguely delicious.

And spring also apparently means lupins. Loads of lupins. Roadsides, lakebeds and fields full of colorful, sweet-smelling wild flowers.

The pics here still somehow miss the depth of color. We've ooh'd and ahhh'd at every turn.

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Photos

Don't Eat Me!
So cute ... and so delicious.

Bob Ross Lives!
A view of Mount Cook reflects in the lake at its base. The intense blue color comes from ground rock that is carried in the melting glacier water, then suspended in the depth of the lake.

Bob Ross Lives!
More of Mount Cook and that stunning reflection.

Lupins
Fields of these things everywhere.

Good Dog
A monument to sheep dogs. See, Chipdog? Some dogs get statues. These dogs are better than you.

Stealth Lamb
Sheep are not incredibly trusting animals.

Comments

[Keith]

Well...
Well, CRAP, Kenneth! You make me want to hop on the next plane over! I LOVE obscenely green places! And those shots of Mt. Cook are awesome! Your comment about the dog statue is funny. SNL has a "commercial" about training your dog by humiliation and guilt (titled "Dissing Your Dog") that I saw recently.